o pleasantly
entertained. It is not, I think, inappropriate to the occasion that I
should do so.

Let me remind you then, in the outset of my remarks on this subject,
that this Institution is in its early infancy; and that notwithstanding
the beautiful landscape which is spread out before us; with its verdant
fields just springing into luxuriance, dotted with the finest specimens
of the choicest breeds of sheep and cattle, with the College grounds
skillfully laid out and now in process of being tastefully adorned by
Art, a few years only have been numbered with the past since not only
this spot, but all the surrounding country, as well as almost the entire
territory of our young, but noble and now highly prosperous State, was
an unbroken wilderness, covered with the primeval forest, the entangled
woods giving shelter and concealment to wild and ferocious beasts, as
well as to the wandering and savage red man. What a change has thus been
wrought in a few short years! the result of the toil and privation of
the adventurous pioneers, of whom many have already become intelligent,
enterprising and forehanded farmers.

And more than this: Michigan, although but recently settled, and one of
the youngest in the great sisterhood of States, has been the first to
establish a professional school for the agricultural education of her
sons, in which is not only taught the sciences and their application to
agriculture, but also agriculture as an art, with such experiments as
are calculated to impart a more thorough and practical knowledge of the
same; and connected with the study of these a department of manual
labor; the legitimate effect of all which is to increase the student's
desire for knowledge as well as his love of study, and to remove the
barrier too often existing between the educated and laboring
classes--which can only be done by giving a better education to those
who labor, and by removing the prejudices of the educated against labor.

But I propose to speak more definitely of the aims and objects of this
Institution, as well as its claims to the favor and support of the
farmers of Michigan. They need not be told, I think, that its design is
to promote their benefit. But have the farmers of this State, as a
class, heretofore recognized this fact? And have they in return for the
advantages which it proposes to them, given it that countenance and
encouragement which it claims at their hands? I fear not. There are, it
is